10 things to watch in the league's inaugural campaign
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Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer
In 2021, actor Larry David began a comedic sports crusade. Appearing on “The Rich Eisen Show,” David called for the abolition of goalposts on professional football fields.
“Why are there goalposts?” David ranted. “Why are kickers [on the team]? They don’t have football skills. They’re not football players. I’m sure they’re wonderful people, but they’re not football players. Why are they kicking the ball through goalposts to decide games? It doesn’t make any sense at all!”
Nearly three years later, David sought out a man he thought could put his vision into reality. (Or at least appreciate and engage in the bit.) He tracked down Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a fellow entertainer who also happens to own a portion of the United Football League, the product of a 2023 merger between the USFL and XFL.
“I heard about this UFL,” David said this month in a return appearance on Eisen’s show, providing the newly branded league the best free publicity it could have asked for. “I pitched him my idea and I thought it was going to happen. He was completely into it.”
Alas, the UFL will in fact have goalposts when its eight teams kick off its 10-week season on Saturday. But David’s gag cemented an undeniable truth about spring football. It’s where pro football innovations arise, from rule changes to television production to the fundamental idea of how and when the game should be played.
The XFL produced the foundation of a revamped kickoff the NFL will adopt this season. The USFL, which entered the marketplace in 2022 alongside the XFL, demonstrated the depth of interest. While it is still unclear whether the business of spring football is sustainable, it is now entering the second half of a near-continuous decade of play. This spring, all 43 of the UFL’s games will be televised on either ABC, Fox, ESPN, FS1 or ESPN2 and streamed on either ESPN+ or the Fox Sports app.
ESPN reported on the basics of the league before training camps started and as the season arrives, here are 10 elements of the UFL of which you should be aware.
Talent level has likely increased
This spring will mark the fifth time in six years that a spring football league has at least started a season, from the AAF (2019) to the XFL (2020 and 2023) to the USFL (2022, 2023). Johnston believes that trend has created a favorable environment for attracting players who might have otherwise stayed home and awaited calls from NFL teams. That includes former NFL players such as pass-rusher Taco Charlton and running back Wayne Gallman, who are rostered with Birmingham and St. Louis, respectively.
Last winter’s merger, meanwhile, cut the number of roster spots available in 2024 by roughly 50% compared to last spring. When you put those factors together, the UFL should be more talented than the recent spring leagues that preceded it.
“Every single head coach and general manager has talked about how challenging the cut-downs were,” said Johnston, who worked for the AAF, XFL and USFL before joining the UFL. “I feel very, very comfortable about the depth we have. That’s an area where we’ve improved. … We used to be on the phone saying to players, ‘Let us help change the way the NFL views you. Let’s put 10 games of film on tape.’ We don’t have to make as many of those calls.”
Johnston said the most notable improvement has come at offensive line. “There were some body types that we had in training camp,” he said, “that we had just not seen on a consistent basis before.”
There are recognizable quarterbacks
The UFL will feature a mix of players well-known to spring league and college football fans. Some teams were still holding competitions as the week ended, but confirmed starters include:
Matt Corral is a candidate to start in Birmingham, as are E.J. Perry and Danny Etling in Michigan. One possibility in San Antonio is Quinten Dormady.
Two notable running backs won’t play this season
First, veteran Bo Scarbrough — who saw time with four NFL teams from 2018 to 2021 before helping lead the Birmingham Stallions to consecutive USFL championships in 2022 and 2023 — announced his retirement early in training camp.
In a memorable send-off quote, Scarbrough said: “You can love this game all you want. But at the end of the day, the game can’t love you back because it’s not a person. It’s a ball. I have so much respect for the people still playing. And when it’s your time, you’ll know it’s your time.”
Then, D.C.’s Abram Smith suffered a torn left ACL during a training camp practice. Smith led the XFL with 788 rushing yards and seven touchdowns last season while helping the Defenders to the XFL Championship Game.
The most established fan bases are St. Louis and D.C.
XFL teams played in their home markets in both 2020 and 2023, and St. Louis made the strongest local connection by far. The Battlehawks averaged 28,000 in attendance over two games in the shortened 2020 season, then averaged 35,000 per home game at The Dome at America’s Center in 2023 — roughly three times the rest of the league. It’s no surprise that the UFL chose St. Louis to host its 2024 championship game on June 16.
Fans at D.C.’s Audi Field, meanwhile, built an organic tradition of constructing “beer snakes” in the stands while averaging 14,000 at the 20,000-seat venue.
Johnston called St. Louis and D.C. the league’s “stars” in terms of local popularity and has challenged the rest of the league to match them. USFL teams all played in Birmingham in 2022 and then moved to regional games in 2023. As a result, crowds could be spotty in some markets where single-game tickets only went on sale earlier this month.
“Attendance was probably our biggest challenge with everything coming together so late,” Johnston said. “The big thing is we have to come out and play good football right away to get that hook set, to validate the commitment that people have already made and try to draw some new people in.”
There won’t be extra point kicks and overtime is unique
As in previous incarnations of spring football, the UFL will require teams to run an offensive play after touchdowns rather than line up for a kick. There will be three options. Teams can line up at:
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The 2-yard line for a 1-point try
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The 5-yard line for a 2-point try
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The 10-yard line for a 3-point try
Those options should reduce the likelihood of a game having to go into overtime. If it happens, though, the teams will get alternating attempts to score from the 5-yard line in a best-of-three format (or until a winner is determined). No kicks will be allowed.
The distinctive XFL kickoff won’t be used
During negotiations to merge the two leagues’ rule books, UFL officials decided to retain the USFL version that closely resembles the traditional NFL kickoff. In the UFL version, the kicker will spot the ball at the 20-yard line, all but eliminating the chance of a touchback and thus maximizing the number of returns. A kickoff that goes out of bounds will be spotted 30 yards from where the ball left the field.
In a twist of irony, the XFL’s version — which places most players downfield and requires them to stand still until the ball hits the ground or is fielded — was the basis for a proposed revamp of the NFL kickoff, which was approved at the owners’ meetings earlier this week.
Johnston previously said the USFL’s injury data wasn’t much different than the XFL’s, and Blandino said there is nothing preventing the league from adjusting after the 2024 season. “It’s not like we can’t get through 2024 and work backward toward a more XFL-style kickoff,” he said.
The UFL will use the NFL possession rule on receptions
Mirroring the USFL, the UFL will require receivers to have both feet in-bounds or land in-bounds with any other body part besides hands. The XFL had only required one foot, citing the positive impact it could have on the game’s aesthetics and scoring totals. But Blandino said the UFL ultimately decided that requiring two feet was an important differentiator between pro and college football.
“We felt like with the talent and with the athletes that we have,” he said, “we really wanted to go to the highest level and say, ‘Hey, this is professional football. If you want to make it to the NFL, this is the rule you’re going to be playing under.'”
The ‘worst rule in football’ won’t exist
If an offensive player fumbles the ball into and out of the end zone, the offense will retain possession at the spot of the fumble. That is consistent with the USFL and XFL rules in 2023, but contrary to the way the NFL handles it — by declaring a touchback and awarding the ball to the opposing team at the 20-yard line.
“We only had it once last year,” Blandino said. “Whenever that happens in the NFL, there’s a narrative of it being the worst rule in football. People hate it. And so we felt like we want to listen to our fans. It doesn’t happen that often. So we’ve implemented that and we’ll see how it goes.”
Reviews will be televised
Both Fox and ABC/ESPN will cut to the league’s off-site officiating command center whenever a review is underway. The UFL has given Blandino and fellow executive Mike Pereira the authority to stop the game, in the league’s words, “if the play is reviewable, there is reasonable evidence to believe an error was made in the initial ruling and it would have a direct, competitive impact on the game.”
Coaches have one challenge they can use to review any play, including a foul. They’ll lose a timeout if the UFL rules against them.
This approach drew rave reviews in 2023, both for the way it helped fans learn league rules and also the transparency into decisions that affect the outcome of games. In the XFL, they averaged 51 seconds in duration.
“We anticipate we should stay within a 60-second time window,” Blandino said.
Coaches stayed on, but some officials moved to the NFL
All eight of the UFL’s head coaches worked in either the XFL or USFL last season. Six returned to their same spots while two — Memphis’ John DeFilippo and San Antonio’s Wade Phillips — shifted to accommodate the merger. The other assignments remain:
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Birmingham: Skip Holtz
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Houston: Curtis Johnson
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Michigan: Mike Nolan
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Arlington: Bob Stoops
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D.C.: Reggie Barlow
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St. Louis: Anthony Becht
Meanwhile, 12 XFL and USFL officials were hired by the NFL after their 2023 seasons were complete. The UFL combined the remaining officials into a larger 10-crew group that will each work four or five games this season. All UFL officials are part of the NFL’s Mackie Development Program.
